BATON ROUGE – Members of the LSU Soccer program took time out of their spring training schedules this past weekend to work with the Baton Rouge Speech & Hearing Foundation on Sunday in the building of the playground for its newly-established multi-million dollar Emerge Center that is scheduled to open to the public in in April.

“It was such a great experience to get involved and hands-on with a project that is so humbling and rewarding,” Ruhl said following the team’s participation in the playground build.

The Baton Rouge Speech & Hearing Foundation has established The Emerge Center to offer more services by tripling the square footage of its headquarters. The plan for The Emerge Center was conceived by January 2012 with construction beginning nearly one year later in December of that same year.

In addition to the playground outside, its Emerge Center will feature 10 group therapy classrooms with separate parent-observation spaces, one kindergarten-level classroom, 11 rooms specifically designed for applied behavior analysis and one-on-one therapy, six rooms for individual therapy or evaluation and behavioral therapy and psychological services, two state-of-the-art audiology testing booths, two hearing consultation rooms, a fully-operational sensory and occupational therapy gym, a large-scale conference and training center, a parent resource room and lending library and a cafeteria and outdoor dining patio.

With the establishment of their Emerge Center, the Baton Rouge Speech & Hearing Foundation will be able to serve up to 300 children in its therapeutic preschool each week, treat up to 60 occupational therapy clients each week, serve up to 100 children in its Integrated Autism Program each year and double the size of its audiology practice.